, 1887-06-30
CHINESE MERCHANTS.
THE MoNeoLlANs BRANCHING OUT
AS GRocERs, ETC.

Growth of Provision Stores In Mott
street-ArticIes Kept for S~aIe-Swest-
meats. Liquors.
Ever since the Americans native born
blue blooded) have given up the grocery
business and left 1t almost entirely to
their Irish and German brethren, the
Chinese have been quietly starting gro
Gerry stores on their own account. As O
matter of compliment they say, Had the
Americans been properly attending to
their own business, the Cinnamon would
not have started so many oriental Del
icatessens' in this CITY," as they think the
pure blooded American Is a model of
business integrity If nothing else.
The present great Chinese prosperity in
the provision line in New York started
o six years g There were then
but two stores, those Of Wa Kee and
Kwong Hing Lung. There are now
thirty-three, mostly OF Mott street. T,y
are still on the increase almost monthly.
Their progress Is only impeded by the
present want of suitable premises in which
to open them. Already almost all of Mott
street, from Pel street to Chatham square,
has been taken up by Chinese merchants;
even the large tenement houses are rap
idly being converted into Chinese head
quarters. Nearly n quarter OF China
NSeoAb oht pau LA W IL
Celestials.
CHINESE BUSINESS CAPACITY.
1t may be interesting to many readers
to get an idea of the extent of the Chinese
business capacity of New York and what
they deal in mostly. Let US first glance
over their retail trade exclusively among
themselves. The following are the prin-
clpal articles of trade in the Chinese gro
ceries: Dried fowls, smoked and sailed
Chinese pork, sausages, ham, dried oys-
tiers, smoked oysters, dried and smoked
CLAIMS, shad dried, smoked and canned in
oil, and other fishes cured in lik> manner,
shrimps and Holsters dried, bean curdle
in all varieties, like the Italian mncnroni;
also canned bean curdle as q catsup.
Chinese cabbage, dried, and also in bar
rels, cured in vinegar. This Is really de-
lcious, and beats the saurkraut Of Ger
man make in every respect Bamboo
shoots in all varieties, lily flowers dried,
sea weeds, fungus, mushrooms, sharks
fms. These are so cured that they re-
semble dried starch. When cooked with
pork they taste lke a delicately cooked
tripe. Beche de mer 10 species of sea
worm, greatly valued as a food tonic by
all orientals. Bears paws dried sell at
o S12 per pound retail; also as a tonic
bears gall as high as $40 per pound.
Chinese yams in all grades. One called
NhO WV W. . ANhl1 LhC IllCoI, IL IL u
species not ut all known here, but in taste
Is much finer than the ordinary potato; it
has a very tough but thin skin. When
growing it has leaves resembling our
water lilies. u about this time of the
year the Chinese gardeners of New York
are furnishing their countrymen with
fresh grown Chinese vegetables, which
are rather poor in quality, probably owing
to the peculiar soil here. The koo qua, or
! hItfpF mnlnn 10 n TnnGf Ounrffn 1foh
among the New York Cinnamon just now,
and it is eaten like the continental pump
kinS by the Yankees of New England.
Koo qua is grown somewhere on Long
Island and Is sold ut twenty-five cents a
pound fresh.
PUMPKINS M BIRDS NESTS.
But the Chinese pumpkins grown here
are mere limitations of what they are in
their own native soil. Birds nests are
also extensively sold among the well to
do class of our Monaghan citizens. They
are sold all the way from So to $50 per
pound, according to quality. The best
are plucked off from the rocks when the
busy little swallows have just finished in
building their tender but brilliant little
homes with the finest part Of q delicate
little shellfish that abounds In the south-
ern sens. But the most curious OF all the
articles Of trade among the Chinese gro
ceries are the dried ducks feet. Every
one Of these being cut of about the knee
joints of the ducks, are cleansed, skinned
and boned, the web part then filed with
the liver of the duck and the whole care
fully tied up with one Of the cleansed en-
trails. These are sold ut the groceries at
about ten cents q foot. Fifteen of these
feet constitute u full dish in n first class
Chinese restaurant, for which they charge
$3.50. They are cooked with bamboo
shoots and mushrooms and pickles. They
really form one of the best dishes in the
Chinese bill of fare. The line of Chinese
sweetmcats is varied and fine, consisting
of nearly every known and unknown fruit
of the world.
There are four principal Chinese liquors
sold in the stores. An ordinary glass of
n strong distilled liquor called the Jung
ka PEI or the five grained liquor"
would probably send an ordinary Irish
man to the other sid Q. Jordan, but John
Chinaman could drink it by the bowlful
day in and day out, and yet they do not
seem to burn up all the shirts they iron.
Wong Chin Foo in New York World.
Method of Eating bananas.
1t was at this very dinner party, by the
way, that l had IN opportunity to OBJ